When government agencies fail or are slow to respond to forces that threaten the environment, an army of Florida residents marches in, armed with facts, money and, above all, a passion to save state wildlife.

They come from all walks of life and where they stride, a path of awareness and change often is blazed:

-- A tract of land proposed for a city-sized development instead becomes a state forest. A three-acre sinkhole, home to a tiny crayfish, and 28,000 acres of wetlands that provide water and cleansing for the St. Johns River are preserved for posterity.

-- Construction of a costly cross-state barge canal that could contaminate Florida's fragile water supply is stopped after residents and politicians are persuaded by facts about its danger to the aquifer.

-- Legislators are reminded again and again of the effect of rampant population growth and are prodded to protect wetlands. County commissioners learn of an eagle's nest on a proposed housing site and impose strict building standards.

These are the legacy of Florida's private interest groups whose actions are invaluable in the effort to save endangered flora and fauna. At least 100 such groups operate around the state, making the environmental voice one of Florida's loudest.

''Private people can do more than the federal and state governments,'' said Doris Mager, known as Central Florida's Eagle Lady. The Apopka woman's efforts to save the bald eagle, the national symbol, have included a ''sit- in'' in an eagle's nest, a cross-country bikeathon, 11 years of aerial nesting surveys, a backyard rehabilitation center for injured raptors and classroom visits where she hopes to imprint future conservationists.

''If an eagle is shot I can scream and rant, but federal and state officials are limited in what they can say. . . . I can say what they want to say.''

At first, people laughed at Ralph Heath's efforts to save injured sea birds, particularly Eastern brown pelicans, in the back yard of his St. Petersburg Beach home. Then the permanently disabled pelicans started breeding, providing healthy offspring to restock populations that had been decimated by pesticide poisoning in some Southeastern states.

''The scientific community told us we'd never breed the pelican, but nobody ever told the pelican,'' said Heath, 40, who turned his backyard hobby into the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. It operates on an annual $200,000 in contributions and is home to about 500 birds. Half of them are pelicans, which are on federal threatened lists. Sanctuary employees and volunteers patrol the St. Petersburg coast to collect injured sea birds. The organization owns nesting islands, has helped produce sea bird films and distributes literature about aiding injured pelicans.

Bok Tower Gardens is a Lake Wales tourist spot that prides itself on a different type of venture: the preservation of some of the state's rarest plant life, which may prove vital to science. By participating in a nationwide horticultural program, gardens officials are trying to save Chapman's rhododendron, the pygmy fringetree and the scrub plum.

''We'll see if we can't preserve it before it is gone,'' said Barney Alford, gardens horticulturist. ''Our propagating may be the only chance for survival, as we see it.''

The Nature Conservancy has a different tactic for preserving state wildlife -- outright purchase of lands where rare plants and animals live. The non- profit group helped create the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, which identifies areas where concentrations of endangered wildlife exist. The conservancy and state agencies use that information to decide what lands to buy.

The conservancy may create its own preserves or, because of its ability to act more quickly than government, may buy land that ultimately will be transferred to state agencies. The past 20 years the conservancy's Florida chapter has purchased 170,000 acres for conservation and transferred 150,000 to the government, said Michael Green, state director. In addition, the organization may seek voluntary wildlife protection by landowners and conservation easements on sensitive property.

''We are the real estate arm of the conservation movement,'' Green said, adding that funding constraints and growth in Florida forces his group to be pragmatic about what it can save. ''There is a definite feeling that within a limited amount of time -- 5, 10, 15 years -- everything that can be saved will be. We're really in a race. We must be selective about what we go after.''

The Florida Defenders of the Environment takes a subtle approach to saving Florida. The group draws upon the services of 500 experts who provide information and offer solutions to the state's environmental problems. So when the group does battle, it is an opponent of great proportion.

''We're influence peddlers,'' said Marjorie Carr, president of the group. ''All we have are the facts and the experts.''